How Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and P!nk Became Pop’s Heroes in 2017

Predictably, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran proved to be pop music's heroes in 2017, but the year's other A-listers might come as a bit of a surprise.

According to Nielsen's annual year-end report, Sheeran and Swift saw out 2017 as the No. 1 and No. 2 pop artists of 2017, respectively. With Divide, Sheeran notched sales of 3.6 million sales with albums, streaming-equivalent albums and track-equivalent albums considered, while Swift and her Reputation efforts managed 3.3 million.

Still, one of the biggest surprises comes from Pink, who landed at No. 4 on the list with 1.1 million in sales after a huge showing across the first week of the release of Beautiful Trauma. The "What About Us" singer, whose first album Can't Take Me Home dropped 18 years ago, saw her biggest week of sales ever, with more than 400,000 sold.

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Maroon 5 and Sam Smith rounded out the list, landing at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively — both also sold around 1.1 million.

Still, where songs and radio play were concerned, some newcomers shook things up. While Sheeran's "Shape of You" was indisputably the top-selling song and most-played on radio (5.8 million in sales), Bruno Mars' "That's What I Like" landed at second in both categories (4.3 million in sales) and James Arthur's sleeper hit "Say You Won't Let Go" landed at third place in sales (2.8 million) and fifth in radio spins.

And Julia Michaels' "Issues" rounded out the Top 5 in the sales category (2.7 million), while Alessia Cara's "Scars To Your Beautiful" came in at No. 3 in radio play and Shawn Mendes' "There's Nothin' Holding Me Back" landed at No. 4.